Contextualising Organised Labour in Expansion and Crisis: The Case of the US

2012 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kim Moody
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Class Struggle ◽  
Final Analysis ◽  
Necessary Condition ◽  
Strategic Choices ◽  
Real Wages ◽  
Union Leadership ◽  
The Us ◽  
Labour Power

AbstractWhile, as Marx argued, periods of expanded accumulation present the best conditions for increasing working-class living standards, the expansion that began in 1982 was based in large part on the rapidfallin the value of labour-power in the US. This recovery and rapid rise in the rate of surplus-value in the US was enabled by the collapse of union-resistance beginning in 1979 and the strategic choices made by union-leaders across the economy from that time on. The expansion was sustained in the 1980s by dramatic work-reorganisation, enabled by the embrace of labour-management cooperation-schemes by much of the trade-union leadership, and the restructuring of several major industries that undermined the industry-wide bargaining on which rising postwar incomes had been based. Productivity, boosted by lean production-methods, would continue to outstrip real wages up until the ‘Great Recession’ of 2008 and resume again in the wake of a weak recovery in the US. The rapid geographic expansion of capital after 1990 provided new investment-possibilities, as did the explosion of financial instruments. What stands out, however, is that rising productivity, far from providing the basis for increases in working-class income, had become coupled with flat or declining real wages and a fall in the value of labour-power as the necessary condition to sustain almost any level of growth in the real economy. The link between productivity and wage-increases, central to Keynesian and institutional collective-bargaining theory, had been broken and Marx’s idea of the most favourable conditions stood on its head. The breaking of this link had, in the final analysis, been an outcome of class-struggle in which capital had the upper hand. All of this underlines the failed strategies and practices of most of the trade-union leadership in the US since 1979. New approaches to the workplace and broader forms of mobilisation will be needed. Signs of worker-resistance to the latest neoliberal clampdowns in Latin America, Europe, China, and even the US, however, may point to a renewed era of intensified class-struggle.

scholarly journals Feminism and Class Politics: A Round-Table Discussion

1986 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clara Connolly ◽  
Lynne Segal ◽  
Michèle Barrett ◽  
Beatrix Campbell ◽  
Anne Phillips ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Black Women ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Women's Movement ◽  
Class Struggle ◽  
Round Table ◽  
Round Table Discussion ◽  
Class Politics ◽  
Labour Movement ◽  
Socialist Feminism

In December 1984 Angela Weir and Elizabeth Wilson, two founding members of Feminist Review, published an article assessing contemporary British feminism and its relationship to the left and to class struggle. They suggested that the women's movement in general, and socialist-feminism in particular, had lost its former political sharpness. The academic focus of socialist-feminism has proved more interested in theorizing the ideological basis of sexual difference than the economic contradictions of capitalism. Meanwhile the conditions of working-class and black women have been deteriorating. In this situation, they argue, feminists can only serve the general interests of women through alliance with working-class movements and class struggle. Weir and Wilson represent a minority position within the British Communist Party (the CP), which argues that ‘feminism’ is now being used by sections of the left, in particular the dominant ‘Eurocommunist’ left in the CP, to justify their moves to the right, with an accompanying attack on traditional forms of trade union militancy. Beatrix Campbell, who is aligned to the dominant position within the CP, has been one target of Weir and Wilson's criticisms. In several articles from 1978 onwards, and in her book Wigan Pier Revisited, Beatrix Campbell has presented a very different analysis of women and the labour movement. She has criticized the trade union movement as a ‘men's movement’, in the sense that it has always represented the interests of men at the expense of women. And she has described the current split within the CP as one extending throughout the left between the politics of the ‘old’ and the ‘new’: traditional labour movement politics as against the politics of those who have rethought their socialism to take into account the analysis and importance of popular social movements – in particular feminism, the peace and anti-racist movements. In reply to this debate, Anne Phillips has argued that while women's position today must be analysed in the context of the capitalist crisis, it is not reducible to the dichotomy ‘class politics’ versus ‘popular alliance’. Michèle Barrett, in another reply to Weir and Wilson, has argued that they have presented a reductionist and economistic approach to women's oppression, which caricatures rather than clarifies much of the work in which socialist-feminists have been engaged. To air these differences between socialist-feminists over the question of feminism and class politics, and to see their implications for the women's movement and the left, Feminist Review has decided to bring together the main protagonists of this debate for a fuller, more open discussion. For this discussion Feminist Review drew up a number of questions which were put to the participants by Clara Connolly and Lynne Segal. (Michèle Barrett was present in a personal capacity.) They cover the recent background to socialist-feminist politics, the relationship of feminism to Marxism, the role of feminists in le ft political parties and the labour movement, the issue of racism and the prospects for the immediate future. The discussion was lengthy and what follows is an edited version of the transcript.

Revisiting the Domestic-Labour Debate: An Indian Perspective

2011 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 3-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rohini Hensman
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Class Struggle ◽  
Domestic Labour ◽  
Labour Power ◽  
Indian Perspective

AbstractThe class-struggle under capitalism is shaped by the fact that for capital, labour-power is merely a factor of production and source of profit, whereas for workers it is an element of their own lives. Given the centrality of labour-power to the accumulation of capital, it is surprising that Marx nowhere describes or analyses its production. The domestic-labour debate of the 1970s was a useful attempt to fill this gap, but left many issues unresolved. This article attempts to carry forward this theoretical task, using examples mainly from India, and to draw practical conclusions for the working-class struggle.

Preventive Debt Restructuring and the Nigerian Draft Insolvency Legislation: Lessons from a Comparative Perspective

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 66-84
Author(s):  
Sanford U. Mba
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Economic Crisis ◽  
Final Analysis ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Debt Restructuring ◽  
The Us ◽  
Financially Distressed ◽  
Bankruptcy Code ◽  
Second Chance

Recently, the Nigerian Senate passed the Bankruptcy and Insolvency (Repeal and Re-enactment) Bill. This is no doubt a welcome development following the continued demand by insolvency practitioners, academics and other stakeholders for such legislation. The call has not only been for the enactment of just about any legislation, but (consistent with the economic challenges faced by businesses in the country), one that is favourably disposed to the successful restructuring of financially distressed businesses, allowing them to weather the storm of (impending) insolvency, emerge from it and continue to operate within the economy. This article seeks to situate this draft legislative instrument within the present wave of preventive restructuring ably espoused in the European Union Recommendation on New Approaches to Business Rescue and to Give Entrepreneurs a Second Chance (2014), which itself draws largely from Chapter 11 of the US Bankruptcy Code. The article draws a parallel between the economic crisis that gave rise to the preventive restructuring approach of the Recommendation and the present economic situation in Nigeria; it then examines the chances of such restructuring under the Nigerian draft bankruptcy and insolvency legislation. It argues in the final analysis that the draft legislation does not provide for a prophylactic recourse regime for financially distressed businesses. Consequently, a case is made for such an approach.

The 1970s Fiscal Squeeze

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Hood ◽  
Rozana Himaz
Keyword(s):  
Trade Union ◽  
Sharp Increase ◽  
Currency Crisis ◽  
Public Spending ◽  
Oil Prices ◽  
Labour Government ◽  
The Us ◽  
Us Government ◽  
Double Digit ◽  
New System

This chapter describes fiscal squeeze in an era of high political volatility and major economic challenges, including mass unemployment, a sharp increase in oil prices, double-digit inflation (i.e. a period of ‘stagflation’), and high levels of trade union militancy. The most dramatic period during the episode occurred in 1976, involving a split Labour Government under two different leaders, with a leadership election following a sudden prime ministerial resignation. That government pursued fiscal squeeze against the background of a deep currency crisis and bailout deals with outside lenders (the US Government and the IMF). The squeeze episode also led to some important institutional developments, producing the first major privatization since the 1950s and a new system of controlling public spending through ‘cash limits’.

Labour Union Leadership and Gender Equality Challenges: Evidence from Kenya’s Electrical Traders and Allied Workers Union

2021 ◽  
Vol 44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evans Okumu ◽  
Ernest N. Nadome ◽  
Mike K. Chepkong’a
Keyword(s):  
Trade Union ◽  
Significant Proportion ◽  
Sampling Procedure ◽  
Structural Constraints ◽  
Exploratory Research ◽  
Leadership Positions ◽  
Trade Union Movement ◽  
Union Leadership ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Using Data

The research investigates the challenges female union members encounter while seeking or assuming labour union leadership positions. Using evidence from Kenya’s Electrical Traders and Allied Workers Union, this article aims at identifying sociocultural barriers, role conflict, and structural constraints on women in relation to gender inequality. The article is based on exploratory research using data comprising both qualitative and quantitative data obtained from interviewing 63 female respondents who were identified using a non-probability sampling procedure referred to as snowballing. The research revealed a significant proportion of the respondents observed that patriarchal union structures favour men, but hinder women from accessing leadership positions. Most viewed the trade union leadership roles as demanding and burdensome and therefore incompatible with their culturally designated family roles. Institutionalised sexism in the trade union discouraged women from assuming leadership positions, since they are unlikely to penetrate the male-dominated informal leadership lobbies and networks in the trade union. The study concludes that the union, and by extension the umbrella trade union movement, should adopt and implement affirmative actions that are focused to maintain women in union leadership structures.

Roundtable discussion: Organising cleaners in the context of Covid-19

2021 ◽  
Vol 122 (1) ◽  
pp. 156-163
Author(s):  
Heather Wakefield ◽  
Helen O’Connor ◽  
Marjorie Mayo ◽  
Jonathan White
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Step Change ◽  
Substantial Part ◽  
Roundtable Discussion ◽  
Migrant Communities ◽  
The Status ◽  
Part Time ◽  
Minority Ethnic

People working as cleaners represent a substantial part of the modern British working class. Low-paid, often part-time, disproportionately female and, more recently, from black and minority ethnic and migrant communities, this workforce has historically been seen as hard to organise. Yet the Covid-19 crisis has elevated the status of cleaning as a key part of maintaining public health. In this article, trade union organisers with experience of working with cleaners discuss the possibilities of the current conjuncture for effecting a step change in both unionisation and the reconstruction of public services.

Organizing Working-Class Academics: A Collective History

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 168-178
Author(s):  
Allison Hurst ◽  
Tery Griffin ◽  
Alfred Vitale
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
College Students ◽  
New York ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Special Section ◽  
Upstate New York ◽  
The Us ◽  
Working Class Studies ◽  
Key Questions

In 2008, the Association of Working-Class Academics was founded in upstate New York by three former members of the Working-Class/Poverty-Class Academics Listserv. The Association had three goals: advocate for WCAs, build organizations on campuses that would support both working-class college students and WCAs, and support scholarship on issues relevant to class and higher education. The Association grew from a small handful to more than 200 members located in the US, UK, Australia, Canada, and Germany. In 2015, it was formally merged with the Working-Class Studies Association, and continues there as a special section for WCSA members. This is our collective account of the organization, told through responses to four key questions. We hope this history will provide insight and lessons for anyone interested in building similar organizations.

Trade union strategy in fashion retail in Italy and the USA: Converging divergence between institutions and mobilization?

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 345-361 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefano Gasparri ◽  
Peter Ikeler ◽  
Giovanna Fullin
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Institution Building ◽  
Contract Workers ◽  
Action Project ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Fashion Retail ◽  
Retail Workers ◽  
Effective Representation

We investigate trade union strategies in fashion retail, a sector with endemic low wages, precarity and a representation gap. Unions in Milan organized ‘zero-hours contract’ workers, while their counterparts in New York established an alternative channel of representation, the Retail Action Project. We argue, first, that the dynamics of both cases are counterintuitive, displaying institution-building in the USA and grassroots mobilization in Italy; second, union identity stands out as a key revitalizing factor, since only those unions with a broad working-class orientation could provide an effective representation for fashion retail workers.

scholarly journals "COMPANY OF MUTUAL AID OF PRIVATE CUSTOMERS" OF GALICIA: ANALYSIS OF THE STATUTE AND ACTIVITY

2017 ◽  
pp. 72-77
Author(s):  
Ihor Berest
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Present State ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
Mutual Aid ◽  
Trade Union Movement ◽  
Mutual Assistance ◽  
Union Movement ◽  
History Of ◽  
Scientific Significance

On the basis of trade union periodicals, the principle of historicism, scientific and objective approach, the article analyzes and shows the statute and activities of the trade union of private servants of Eastern Galicia. The present state and development of the historiography of the problems, the history of the trade union movement was investigated, it was proved that the main event in the trade union movement of the middle of the ХІХ century became social processes in Eastern Galicia, which created a new working-class movement on the material and moral protection of workers. The study of this problem has an important scientific significance, since it enables to show the work of the first professional union of private employees, to analyze their program document and to show the evolution of trade union movement until the adoption of the Constitution of 1867. Among the works devoted to this topic, unfortunately, there are no monographs or scientific researches by Ukrainian scholars, therefore, in the article we rely on the study of Polish scholars: Bali Stanislav, Kishchinsky Lucian, and trade union periodicals, where there is an attempt to present the history of trade union movement in a new course of events. Thus, we can conclude that the Society for the Mutual Assistance of Private Servants was formed, the founding of which was sought or projected by employees from 1846. And, despite for political blockages, or attacks by employers and many other reasons, the suspension of the creation of a basic document, however, achieved the goal of 1867 - the Society began its activities.

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